Fewer Black Federal Judges Under Trump As White Males Thrive

These conservative White men will shape policies on issues like the criminal justice system for decades.

President Donald Trump is turning the federal judiciary into a system dominated by White male judges, reversing a decades-long trend toward diversity that will have long term consequences, the Associated Press reported.

The lack of diversity on the federal bench creates “a clear perception where the courts are not a place people can go and vindicate their civil rights,” Kyle Barry, senior policy counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, told the AP.

Trump’s unabashed selection of conservative White men–some of them of questionable qualifications–will erase the broader viewpoints that racial minorities and women bring to rulings, at a time when the nation’s demographics is becoming more diverse. The president’s judges, who are lifetime appointees, will shape policies ranging from the criminal justice system to the environment for many decades.

Up to this point in his presidency, Trump’s nominees have been 91 percent White and 81 percent male, according to an AP analysis. He will be the first Republican since President Herbert Hoover, who began his presidency in 1929, to nominate fewer women and minorities than his immediate Republican predecessor did, if Trump continues his trend.